The Opalka Gallery, a sturdy crossbreed of brick and glass, is a center for contemporary art. It’s platform for artists from around the region.

It’s also the public face for the Sage Colleges in Albany – the unmistakable space fronting the campus’ entrance on New Scotland Avenue, connecting it with the community at large. Or if it isn’t, it should be. Just ask Judie Gilmore.

“I really have an idea of the space being like storefront, almost, for the school – and being a place where the community can understand what the school does, and what programs and resources they offer,” said Gilmore, who arrived as director in August after the departure of Elizabeth Greenberg.

In the 16 years since its opening, the Opalka has made its place among the region’s many loci for visual art – among them the Tang at Skidmore, the University Art Museum at UAlbany and other college galleries – with abstract works at the leading edge. What Gilmore calls “the art audience” knows it well.

But in her vision, the Opalka will extend its reach beyond those established ranks and bring in new demographic slices: students themselves, for instance. Or residents in the Helderberg neighborhood, folks who might cruise past the structure every day without ever setting foot in it. “It’s kind of like the best-kept secret in Albany. People tell me all the time: ‘Oh, I live right by there. I drive by there all the time. I didn’t know that was a gallery.’”

Gilmore hopes to correct that. She also hopes to incorporate a real-world element to some of the programming, mixing art-for-art’s sake with matters of political and social relevancy. She is, she said, “thinking about how to use the space, not just as a way to provide beautiful art for people to look at, but to be a platform for community dialogue.”

Among the programming slated for this spring are an April 11 forum on “Diversity in the Creative Economy”; an April 21 “Supper Club” addressing social media’s influence on photography; a May 10 film screening (“Dawson City: Frozen Time”) paired with a panel discussion; the “40th Annual Photo Regional” exhibit, up through April 15; and a high-school master class in photography being run in conjunction.

Other recent and recurring events include artist talks, yoga classes and PechaKucha nights – i.e., evenings of snappy, photo-centric, six-and-a-half-minute talks delivered by people describing their joys and passions. The Opalka is the officially designated PechaKucha outpost for the Albany area, but Gilmore hopes to “share the handshake” with other venues in other locales.

The programming efforts, audience outreach and regional cooperation are all part of her plan to nudge the Opalka outward while luring people in. A former strategic-initiatives director at Philadelphia Mural Arts, the mother of two arrived in the region five years ago – following her husband, who works for General Electric – and served as project director for “Breathing Lights,” the Bloomberg-funded installation that illuminated tri-city buildings in late 2016. She also oversaw the soon-to-be-released Public Art Master Plan for the City of Troy.

Her faith in public art drives her conviction that art can -- and should -- play a role in the community. “Art organizations and art institutions can be a platform for conversations,” she said. They can be a “safe space” for dialogue that goes beyond the merely aesthetic, allowing people to open up on knotty social issues. “There’s something about the art space that does that.” It isn’t always easy to program, she said. “But when it happens, it’s kind of magic.”

How can she bring that public-art mindset into the Opalka?

“That’s a good question. And I’ve been thinking a lot about that -- I want to think of this as a public space. But yeah, how to break down those walls a little is something that I’m really excited to experiment with – but to also not lose the audience that is used to certain things that have happened here in the past, because I value that, too.”

After “Breathing Lights,” she’s also a big believer in regionalism and communication, hoping the area’s many and varied arts programmers can avoid some of the crossed wires and scheduling conflicts that occasionally vex a decentralized region. “I don’t think that’s intentional. I think it’s just there’s never been someone who steps up and says, ‘All right, we gotta do that. Let’s get on the same page. I’ll manage the Google calendar.’”

Moving ahead, Gilmore said she wants to create a community advisory board. She’d love a student curatorial committee. She aims to work on “breaking down the barriers of who can come in here and who has access to this place, and who has ownership of it,” she said. Overall, she’s striving for the “Museum 2.0” approach to arts administration, which urges: Don’t just provide content. Be a platform for its creation.

Ultimately, that’s her aim for the Opalka. “But it is going to be a challenge, I’m sure,” she said. “I’m not saying it’s easy.”